My life with New Daily Persistent Headache

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Why exercise is the best painkiller.

So as you know if you’ve been following my blog for a while I’m a black belt in Tae Kwon-Do and train at least 5 times a week for an hour and a half to two hours each time. So pretty intense. For some of that time I’m doing some teaching of lower grades both children and adults and for the other part of that time, at least an hour I am training myself. I’m working towards my next level of black belt which is 2nd Dan, currently 1st Dan right now, hoping to be 2nd Dan next April when I take my grading, so right now I’m training pretty hard for that and studying for the theory part of the exam.

You may ask ‘how can you do so much training when you are always in pain?’ The simple fact is, exercise is truly the best pain killer or pain distraction. In my opinion not for the reason that it gets natural endorphin’s flowing, it does but for me that’s not the reason it helps. It’s the distraction, for an hour and a half to two hours I’m not thinking about the pain and it’s truly the best and only relief I get, I’m almost not even aware that I have a headache, I do but I’m not thinking about it. I’m thinking about what I’m doing, getting what I’m teaching right and the training I am doing myself.

I know when you’re in pain all the time it’s pretty hard to motivate yourself to do anything, even the simplest thing as getting out of bed is hard let alone going out and doing a good two hours exercise. I get that I do, because I’ve been there, I know what it’s like. But truly for me the distraction that training gives me is the best thing of my day, hence why I go so often because it’s the only relief I get.

Yeah I have bad days and sometimes it’s so bad I don’t feel able to go even though I really want to. But I have also found if I go when it’s really bad sometimes I’m so angry it’s not really safe for me to do the sparring (fighting) aspect of the sport (there is other aspects it’s not just fighting) purely because I’m so riled up that I fight too heavily, so it’s best that I don’t go. And sometimes it’s so bad that if I even move to do anything it feels like my head is being repeatedly stabbed with a knife and lets just say that that experience isn’t pleasant, so I just don’t go and stay in bed instead where at least not moving isn’t going to make it worse, well I hope anyway, not always the case.

Find something that you love, an interest that you love, doesn’t have to be exercise but anything that is a distraction enough that it gets your mind off of the pain for a while. For me that’s Tae Kwon-Do but for you that may be crafting or painting, anything, as long as it get’s your mind off of the pain which in turn gives you some relief.